The couch, free speech, and regular sessions are the three elements of classical psychoanalysis. The School of Aliveness & Adulthood's originality lies in its use of Real Time, meaning in how it concerns itself with what needs to be done today instead of with what was done yesterday: It is by making the time of today that we can undo the time of yesterday.

The therapist regularly intervenes in order not to let the patient remain in a sterile and deadly language, which will only make him/her feel worse. The therapist's regular intervention means the non-utilization of frustration through silence, which reinforces the patient's feeling of loneliness and lack, and affects the transference through a dominating-dominated pattern, i.e. the therapist-the patient, who reproduces a parental scheme and especially a feeling toward a parent.

The story of the Unconscious is essentially the story of a "natural" emotional immaturity, marked by predetermination: Immaturity implies an "excess" of suffering in reaction to a judgment: Every child casts a relatively severe judgment on everything that does not fully fulfill him. The belief that children are all pure and that parents have all the power over the children is wrong: This preconception, which consists of putting all the guilt on the parent, gives no real maturity to the parent or the child.

The solution to guilt is responsibility for our own actions: When we feel guilty, it means that we are angry with our self, which causes nothing but stagnation and despair. Feeling responsible, however, means that we want to do something about it, to repair, and this is movement.

Reaction is dependence and repetition of what already was.
Action is autonomy and experience of what is new.
Knowing whether we are acting or reacting allows us to determine a level of consciousness and alertness to time, which every individual needs.

The objective of the work is to do first, and this does not come naturally. What is natural is to think first and then do.
In order to want, we need to learn to become subject of our self and to move away from the passivity of lack, so that we can enter a desiring energy. Above all, this means doing first and then thinking, and Repeating this new way of functioning while it inscribes itself in an education that gives value to experience--and to the knowledge acquired through experience--instead of passively trusting beliefs about life or the "ideal life" that do not in any way satisfy our desire for life.

In this context, the objective is to Want:

To do better, which we have to learn.
To work in Real Time, meaning every day.
To get organized both in our house and in our head, as disorder causes anxiety and gives a feeling of confusion, incoherence and distress that keeps repeating itself.
To learn progressively how to make the transition from the Symbolic Time of absolutes, ideals and beliefs, to Relative Time, which is real and only trusts real experiences.
To feel good with our self, more than anything else.
To learn, and to repeat this learning process.
To feel good with our self more than with anyone else.
To become curious about our self.
To stop working against time.

The School works on defusing the Unconscious' way of functioning, and on influencing it through the conscious construction of a mental state, which only relies upon its actual experiences. This way, it allows for the development of a desire to make efforts, and a taste for good work, as opposed to the distaste caused by sterile thoughts, which profoundly bore anyone who gives in to them.

This work requires active and real sessions, focusing on how to avoid being prisoners of our unawareness of what feels good and what does not. Finding energy requires that we release our controlling negative emotions, and that we gradually turn the way of functioning based on "what I want" into a movement that will generate a desire in us to keep going without getting bored, and to become curious of our self without getting tired of it. In order for the mind not to be bored, it needs to find its place in the tangible reality that defines it.

The School also teaches a language consistent with our need to become conscious of who we are; only then, will we be able to truly love and give to others, after having learned to do this for our self first.

Each session has a beginning, a run-time and an end: It is a cycle, which must convey movement toward an opening, and not toward a closing that resists hope.

Each session works on real and tangible facts, the success or the failure of the patient's actions. It consists of searching, and learning not only how to recognize what creates discomfort, anguish or fear in front of a situation, but also how to consider a different attitude that will allow the patient to leave the session feeling better than when he/she came in.

Each session is a journey that we need to repeat with time, as it builds a memory of what is real; and only this memory can give a feeling of real existence because it is aware of what happens and of the connection that exists between desire and successful desire.

Learning means teaching our self.
Seizing power over our self requires that we unlearn power struggle.
Making everyday of our life become a whole, which, like a session, has three stages--morning, day, evening-- preparing the 4th stage--sleep, is making a cycle that will finally give real relativity to time, and thus to what happens during this time.

There is a language that forbids the "true" words of sensation and of the body: It is the emotional language, which deprives from the words of relationship; it is the language of our violent, aggressive and guilt-inducing drives. There is another language, which gives feeling to every word and allows true movement toward the other. We need to learn this language; only then do we have nothing to fear from the other, as all the energy gets concentrated on what our own words have to say instead of on waiting for what the other has to say. This is how we can heal from our drives and their annihilating violence.